A Study of Population and Evolutionary Dynamics of Temperate and Lytic Phage in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Open Access

Abstract

Immunity and resistance are the two major mechanisms that enable bacteria to survive infections with bacteriophage (phage). In the case of resistance, the bacteria are resistant (refractory) to the phage. With immunity, on the other hand, the phage infects the bacteria, but the infection is aborted, and the infecting phage is lost. In the classical interpretation, lysogenic bacteria are immune to the phage- encoded by their prophage. In a recent study, it was predicted and demonstrated with E. coli and temperate phage Lambda that under broad conditions selection will favor the evolution of resistant as well as immune lysogens. This prediction was confirmed by testing naturally occurring lysogenic E. coli with phage coded for by prophage, all ten studied bore chromosomal mutations resistant for resistance to these phages. In this study, we explore the generality of this finding with fifteen naturally occurring lysogenic strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. At one level, the results of this study are consistent with that observed for E. coli. However, only five of the naturally occurring P. aeruginosa lysogens bore chromosomal mutations for resistance to the phage coded for by their prophage. For the remaining ten, the resistance was coded for by genes borne by the prophage. We consider the implications of these results to our understanding of the population biology, ecology, and evolution of temperate bacteriophage and lysogenic bacteria.

Table of Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….………….1

Results……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….4

Figure 1: Population dynamics for DMS3VIR and DMS3GEN in serial passages experiments for PAO1 strains…………...……………………………………….………..4

Figure 2: Population dynamics on the absorption of DMS3GEN with three populations for PAO1 strains……………………………………………………………………………5

Figure 3: Absorption of free temperate phage with naturally occurring and P. aeruginosa and PAO1 constructed lysogens………………………………………………..………....7

Discussion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….9

Materials and Methods……………………………………………………………………………………………………….13

References……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….19

Supplementary Materials………………………………………………………………………………………………….…23

Figure S1. Absorption of DMS3VIR and DMS3GEN in serial passages experiments starting for PA14 strains..…………...……………………………………………..........................………………………23

Figure S2. Population dynamics on the absorption of DMS3GEN with three populations for PA14 strains…………...……………………………………………..........................………………….……24

Supplemental Table S1. Wild phage genomes……………..........................………………….……24

Supplemental Table S2. Linear Regression Results……………..........................…………………25

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Biology
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Biology, Microbiology
Keyword	Temperate phage Bacteriophage Population biology Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Bruce Levin, Emory University
Committee Members	Joanna Goldberg, Emory University Nicole Vega, Emory University

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